A UC-backed research study is examining how the urban housing crisis drives development to natural areas such as the former Nyland cattle ranch in rural San Benito County.

Miriam Greenberg, a sociology professor at UC Santa Cruz, is leading a large-scale, interdisciplinary study to understand how a lack of affordable housing in urban areas and increased pressure for housing beyond the city limits affects the growth of the wildland-urban interface, where the fringes of development reach into natural areas.

The project is supported by a $1.6 million California Climate Action Seed Grant provided by UCOP. The funds come from the California State Budget Act of 2022–23, which allocated $100 million to UCOP to invest in research that will have a swift and measurable impact on climate resilience.

“We have a confluence of all of these pressures—on the one hand for conservation, restoration and stewardship, and then on the other hand an increased pressure for development and affordable housing,” Greenberg says. “We see a lot of potential alliance-building between folks who are concerned about all of these things, and we hope to use our research to bring all those groups together to find solutions.”

Read the whole story from the UC Newsroom

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